Bizo Gives Social a Twirl in B2B Target Marketing

Facebook is the major focus of Bizo's targeted marketing efforts, which might be surprising given its B2B orientation. In fact, Facebook is a gamechanger for B2B, according to CEO Russell Glass. "Facebook offers tremendous scale for us," he said. "One third of all impressions on the Web now, in general, are on Facebook."

Bizo, an online marketing provider that focuses specifically on the business segment, has introduced two new apps that refine its marketing reach.

Bizo Company Targeting and Bizo CRM Retargeting, which can be deployed separately or together, are tightly integrated with Salesforce.com, although it is not necessary to be a Salesforce.com client to use them.

Bizo's Approach

"We target people based on business demographics -- what jobs a person holds, where he or she is located, what industry he or she is in," he noted.

The company then targets these leads with ads on Facebook and Bizo's own managed network of 3,000 business-focused sites, as well as the Reach Network, a collection of millions of sites curated by the Bizo team, Glass said.

Facebook is the major focus, though, which might be surprising given Bizo's B2B orientation. In fact, Facebook is a gamechanger for B2B, according to Glass.

"Facebook offers tremendous scale for us," he said. "One third of all impressions on the Web now, in general, are on Facebook."

Moving Through the Funnel

Bizo's approach in the Company Targeting app is similar to the way it targets by industry, expect that it creates a customized targeted list of companies that have some kind of brand awareness of the client.

"It allows the marketer to move down the funnel to reach companies that actually know something about the company, as opposed to just someone who is in the industry but isn't necessarily familiar with the client," Glass explained.

The CRM Retargeting app focuses on getting the user to the very bottom of the funnel, he said, by targeting prospects who are active in the sales cycle or somewhere else in the marketing funnel -- beyond the state of just general awareness of the client's brand, that is. These people might be being cultivated by marketing emails or other campaigns.

Analytics Tools

The apps also come with analytics tools that allow a user to see how its targeted audience is interacting with the website or other campaign materials.

That, in turn, leads to more visibility into the marketing and sales cycle, allowing a company to take such steps as personalizing content on a website or sending tailored email marketing messages to prospects.

"Analytics is a very important piece to all this," Glass said. "It measures how effective the messages are at the top of the funnel, as they move through the funnel, and then, hopefully, how effective the messages are at converting leads."

Erika Morphy has been writing about technology, finance and business issues for more than 20 years. She lives in Silver Spring, Md.